The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-09-25

and certainly never would do again,
even II she missed the last train by 1t.
Well, what She had been unable to find hose
in pairs. and in her desperate hurry she had
pulled on one black stocking and one striped red
one for all the world like a harlequin you know.
Yes but. but! was it not enough to mortify one
half to death to think of those horrld young
men with field glasses and telescopes Watching
her as shesclimbed the bank2 She should think
so indeed. She wished the ground would open
and swallow her up that very minute; indeed
she did. But the ground did not come to her
aid, and the girl in red still lives.
The return of Mrs. Frank Leslie to town, with
all she has to tell of her adventures with her
marquis and her prince, awakens great deal OF
life in the set in which she moves. for she is
among her admirers very queen, and
thsy nothing remarkable about her having
tis.el dandies in her train. though they are
let anxious to hear all about them. For my
PSF. as a humble outsider and Cooker at
Ttsus," to paraphrase an old quotation. / sin
ce.eiy hope that her Prince Eristoff is more
according to barbarous New World notions
of what real, sure enough ought to be
than the Marquis de Leuville was My
sakes what funny creature he was,
with his pinched -dolar-eorsets-
waist and his little legs and faring coat tails and
ridiculous suggestion Of hustle. I don't won
der she wouldn't have him. would not either.
u
stuffed and mounted should not know what to
do with him. But Mrs. Frank Leslie deserves
we'll OF her country and of her sex all
the world, if it is only for showing how
false the theory is that women are not fitted for
business. Instead of that being so, there is not
man in ten thousand who could do what she
has done, and I'm not belistling tho lords and
masters one bit for confess don't think the
feminine woods are very full of Mrs. Lesies.
She had been an edltress when she became the
wife of the publisher, and she knew more of
trade than kitten. Her husband discour
aged her learning. but he petted
her and when she insisted that
she could do better at buying the
paper stock used in the concern than he was
doing, he let her take that in charge and she
saved him great deal of money. In time came
his illness and death and the bankruptcy of the
concern. Here very queer thing happened.
She bad to have hundred thousand dollars
and she had not the faintest notion how
where to get it l don't know whether she
prayed for it or not but what if she dida Jay
Gould prayed at least once. as he said in court,
and George Washington also prayed on some
tremendous occasion which have now forgot
ten. Ny impression is, though, that Mrs. Les
lie simpy ''wlled'' the hundred Thousand. You
know the old saying, when she wills. she will"
and so she did in this case and next day down
came stranger. lady, and sad Mrs Leslie,
think you need hundred thousand dollars.
Please accept that sum OF me. II any man
SAYS that isn't business, can only reply with a
Awoman's answer-don't the business men wish
they could do it, though? That hundred
thousand was not flea bite TO what she
needed. but it carried her over the rapids, and
now her business is in better shape than it ever
was while her husband lived, and she is the abb
solute, fiat-footed mistress of it. She is in her
prime, q less than middle-aged woman. plump.
pure brunette, with great eyes of the kind the
poets call soulful" frame of ringlets around
striking, fnely-featured face. and form that
her friends envy. delightful thing about her
Is a o An
do. that because she is smart man she
must make guy of herself and dress like
blnestocking Susan B. does, put on trous-
ers. as Rosa Bonheur does. or slop around in
things peculiar TO herself, Ouida does, or be a
Mary Walker Mrs. Tom jon. On the
contrary. she dresses ike any other lady, with
great expense and exquisite taste. She
is dotinglv fond of silks. and wears
them even at her desk in her
who would criticise this--but what won't they
criticised l have even heard her taken to task
for wearing the largest diamonds in town. Mrs.
Leslie holds salons. She is of the few in
town who do. There is Courtland Palmer and
Miss Glider, and / don't know whether Mrs.
Bunce is continuing hers and that's about ALL
Wilcox will establish herself a social and lit
erary queen. with throne OF her own, in her
new home up by the park this winter. can
not find myself hoping that she WILL however,
for a rule these American salons tedi-
Gus as Quaker meetings. 1 don't know whether
we can't get mp big enough lions. or whether 1t is
that we don't go in for that sort of thing, but re-
ally of the salons I have attended have
left npon my mind nothing but confused recol-
lection of twaddle and wholesale complexion. by
which latter phrase I mean full dress decollete
gowns. you very we'll know. Mr.. Soandso
sings q song with more airs than melody. Miss
Such and such declaims with hands in front of
her like child in a Sunday school show. Mr..
Blank goes about paving the hands Of the pref
tiest ladies and pretending to know palmistry,
and Mrs. What's her-name scrapes violin till it
shrleks with pain. And who are they all and
whatto they amount tol Pshaw! Isuspect the
salons need the Paris atmosphere. They wilt
when you transplant them.
Butt have strayed away from Mrs. Leslie. Her
salons tedious but they better than the
others. OF course they are mutual admiration
concerns, but they not confined to one cast
iron set. She invites notables from all parts of
the world and gives them very rich setting in
her gorgeous suite of rooms in a swell Broadway
hotel. CLARA BELLE.